Battlebots Season 6 Starts Tonight! Let's keep score! I will 3D print a trophy

[Chino]

Every year I try, and every year I refuse to give up! 8PM EST on Discovery. Season 6 starts tonight.

My friends and I, as well as my family, keep score every week. If anyone on DTF wants to have some fun and join, now's your chance! If we get more than 4 members participating, I will make a custom, one-off, DTF giant nut trophy for the victor. No need to choose a winner for the Youtube exclusive fight. I won't be counting those.

Here is tonight's fightcard:



Here are my picks:

[jingle.boy]

Well, I'm not as big a fan.  I'm recording it, but not sure when I'll end up watching them.  It's usually when I have 10-15 minutes of free time to myself, since that's all it takes to watch a 1-hour episode.   

[Chino]

I got 3 points this week. That's 3 more than the rest of DTF combined!



What an opening night. Holy shit. Sawblaze laid the effing beatdown on Minotaur.


Blacksmith vs Free Shipping was a blast, as expected. Gary and Al are two of the best guys in sport. Seeing Blacksmith adopt a hammer saw is exciting. The bot's always been a tank and hard to kill, but it'd never get the judges' decisions because it couldn't cause enough damage with just a hammer head.

Captain Schrederator's fight against Tombstone was completely unexpected had me yelling at the TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7epG5wnTzs

Deep Six actually looks refined this year, and it's very scary. The Battlebots organization actually had to cap the weight of a weapon at 80lbs because of these guys.


Hydra vs End Game was a great opening Main Event. Hydra was No.1 seed last year. End Game won the championship. Discovery does an amazing job making Jake look like an utter piece of shit most of the time, but the guy is super cool. Sucks to see him take a loss on night one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbO_Qs2ql0

[jingle.boy]

I was certainly disappointed in Hydra - it was starting to smoke right from the get go.  That Sawblaze/Minotaur fight was dope.

[Chino]

I was certainly disappointed in Hydra - it was starting to smoke right from the get go.  That Sawblaze/Minotaur fight was dope.

Jake explained that the pump that circulates their hydraulic fluid burnt out after the first flip, and that's what started smoking. My initial thought was speed controllers. That team had speed controller issues in a few bots las year.

[jingle.boy]

I was certainly disappointed in Hydra - it was starting to smoke right from the get go.  That Sawblaze/Minotaur fight was dope.

Jake explained that the pump that circulates their hydraulic fluid burnt out after the first flip, and that's what started smoking. My initial thought was speed controllers. That team had speed controller issues in a few bots las year.

Pretty sure it was smoking even before that first flip.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbO_Qs2ql0

Watch closely, and you can see a couple of small plumes of smoke right before and as it gets caught in the floor saws.

[Chino]

I was certainly disappointed in Hydra - it was starting to smoke right from the get go.  That Sawblaze/Minotaur fight was dope.

Jake explained that the pump that circulates their hydraulic fluid burnt out after the first flip, and that's what started smoking. My initial thought was speed controllers. That team had speed controller issues in a few bots las year.

Pretty sure it was smoking even before that first flip.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHbO_Qs2ql0

Watch closely, and you can see a couple of small plumes of smoke right before and as it gets caught in the floor saws.

Yeah, it definitely looks like it started burning up as soon as they turned it on. That's shit luck.

The fight card for week two was posted for supporters:


Some interesting matchups there.

Yeti vs Mad Catter will probably be 3 straight minutes of mayhem followed by a judges decision.
Mammoth vs Hijinx will be a weird one given the size differences.
Kraken vs Rotator will be good I think. Kraken is tank and they mentioned that their bite is even stronger than last season.

I can't wait for Blip to make its debut! I think that one might be a sleeper this year.

I'll need a day or so to make my official choices.

[jingle.boy]

Does Kraken really need a stronger bite?  Mammoth is always weird to watch for me.  It looks like it should be a piece of cake to damage and defeat, but it's sneaky powerful.

[Chino]

Does Kraken really need a stronger bite?  Mammoth is always weird to watch for me.  It looks like it should be a piece of cake to damage and defeat, but it's sneaky powerful.

A stronger bite wouldn't hurt. I was trying to find the response (I thought it was an AMA on Reddit), but I'm coming up short. They might not necessarily be looking for more biting power, but rather a quicker time to close their jaws. Their setup is actually really clever. I uses an inflatable bag that's meant to help rollover flipped cars to close their upper jaw. It's an awesome amount of force without needing hydraulics.

Mammoth is awkwardly shaped. For many bots, they can't really make contact with much outside of its weapon and wheels. Most the the chassis is out of reach for the majority of weapons in the field. Mammoth fought HUGE a while back and it was a super weird (but awesome) match:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z1WHf9Jv7w

[Chino]

My picks for the week:

[jingle.boy]

Nice to see Hydra kick ass last week.  Poor Gruff.

I know this is the chino/jingle.boy thread atm, but I'll try to watch quickly (I'm not watching "live") to keep involved the discussion.  What are the matchups this week?

[Chino]

Nice to see Hydra kick ass last week.  Poor Gruff.

I know this is the chino/jingle.boy thread atm, but I'll try to watch quickly (I'm not watching "live") to keep involved the discussion.  What are the matchups this week?

Yeah. That broke my heart! I always cheer for Gruff. I love an underdog with a soft-spoken driver. Hydra was definitely struggling though. Their flipper didn't even seem to be at half power.

Here are this week's mashups!


Some great fights in there for sure! I'm really hoping to see Blade put on a show and shine. They have lots of notoriety in the Chinese leagues, but they got bitch slapped by Skorpios in their first fight.

[jingle.boy]

I'll try to fire it up today.

When does YT publish that bonus fight?  Really want to watch Deep 6 again.

[Chino]

If you're a supporter on FB, you can see the bonus fights on Tuesdays I believe. Otherwise, you have to wait until Sunday.

[jingle.boy]

Ok... I'll hang tight then.  I see that their YT channel has the three previous week's up.

[jingle.boy]

Dat main event was awesome.  Hypershock was a beast.  Lucky did a pretty good job too.

Gonna watch all the bonus fights sometime today, since I haven't seen any of them.

[Chino]

Dat main event was awesome.  Hypershock was a beast.  Lucky did a pretty good job too.

Gonna watch all the bonus fights sometime today, since I haven't seen any of them.

Yeah. Hypershock really brought it this season. I'm a huge fan of Lucky. I love the team, and I love the bot. It's awesome being able to see a non-spinner able to hold it's own.

[jingle.boy]

So, the bonus fights are a bit of a bust. Deep 6 getting stuck in the floor.  The fidget spinner was a turd - 2 hits and dead. Rampage flipped and done. Shatter/subzero was a good fight at least.

Is that the point of the “bonus” .... that they are the worst fights of the night?

Still have 2 more to watch.

[Chino]

So, the bonus fights are a bit of a bust. Deep 6 getting stuck in the floor.  The fidget spinner was a turd - 2 hits and dead. Rampage flipped and done. Shatter/subzero was a good fight at least.

Is that the point of the “bonus” .... that they are the worst fights of the night?

Still have 2 more to watch.

It's hit or miss. A lot of the time, they're fights that would be considered too lackluster for TV.

Deep Six getting stuck in the floor sucked. A lot of builders were pissed this season I guess. The organization basically doubled the width of the killsaws, and therefore doubled the width of their opening in the floor. They didn't inform the teams. So the teams spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours building these machines, and then get stuck in the floor because they built their forks and wedgeletts per the dimensions of outdated arena hazards. Teams designed their forks to not get stuck in the older slots, and had no idea that a redesign might have been necessary. Deep Six likely wouldn't have gotten stuck on the old floor.

I thought they were being kind of dump though. They should have powered down their spinner (SMEEEEE shut down theirs) and let SMEEEE try and hit them from the front. I'm actually really surprised the officials didn't stop the match and free them. According to the teams, the crew shut down the killsaws because they thought they'd get damaged if they tried to come up and Deep Six was a foot into them. There are rules in place where the refs can pause a match if the robots get stuck together or if a robot is being inhibited by the box in a way that wasn't intended.

I feel terrible for SMEEEE too. They had a great fight and I think their win is losing credit to the arena. Their bot worked exactly as it was designed to - It constricted the opponent well. They controlled them. And they used their undercutters to surgically remove Deep Six's wheels (or at least one of them). They did an outstanding job, especially when you consider they were up against one of the scariest weapons in the history of the sport.

[jingle.boy]

Finally watched last week.  Some really nice fights.  The opening fight was dope.  Hydra losing was  I mean, is it possible they don't even make the championship tourney?!?! Ribbot launching P1 was fantastic.  I can't believe how fast End Game disposed of Sawblaze!  Bonus fight was another shitty one.

[Chino]

Yeah, this week was awesome for sure. I loved the SMEEEEEE vs Gigabyte fight. What a match. There's a decent chance we see a Sawblaze vs End Game rematch in the final bracket at some point.

I loved Robbot's camo in this fight 

[Grappler]

I used to watch this show way back when I was in college and I'm glad that it came back!  We paid minimal attention last year - the guy that had the Rusty bot is from my wife's hometown, just down the road from us.  So we watched his fights until he lost out of the tournament. 

My kids are addicted to watching dumb youtube videos, so I was trying to find something family friendly that we all could watch and landed on Battlebots.  They love it - my daughter's favorite is Ribbit because it looks like a frog, and my 4 year old son just likes to say "Robots Activate' and "fight fight fight!"

I think my favorite bot is HUGE, which has such a great concept - giant wheels and a spinning blade, allowing him to just roll on top of other robots and whack them around.  I also love Blacksmith, who was sponsored by Nuclear Blast Records.   

[Chino]

I love HUGE! They're from my home state. I used to watch way back when in the late 90s during the Comedy Central era. It's great to see so many of those drivers still in the sport.

[jingle.boy]

Another boring as shit bonus fight this morning.

The main show was probably the best of the season so far.  Cobalt was a boss.  Deep Six got deep six'd alright.  I'm loving Blip too.  Duck got man-handled.  What's the deal with that bot - I mean, they strike me as (in wrestling terms) a complete jobber.  Hijinx surprisingly successful.

[Nick]

Too late obviously to join in the competition, but enjoying the new season as always. The last main event was pretty boss, but I'm surprised it was a split decision, should have been unanimous.

Jennie keeps making comments that she wants Faruq to announce the wedding party at our wedding. While that may not be practical, I do intend to reach out to him on Cameo to try and get a sound clip of him introducing her to play over the audio system when the time comes.

[Chino]

That last main event was one of the best fights I've ever seen.

Duck! has evolved into a pretty crappy machine this year, sadly. When Hall brought that bot to the scene 4 or 5 years ago, it was just a plow/lifter that was capable to taking hits from anyone in the field until they broke. Kind of like Homer in the boxing ring. The producers kept pushing the "active weapon" rule, and Hal had to change the design to accommodate. He came up with that beak thing for this season, which required a ton of weight, and the durability his bot was known for suffered. It's a shame. I love Hal. He's sent me free stickers before just because I asked if I could buy any. I have a Duck shirt that I rock on a regular basis.

I'm loving Blip. I bet they get into the top 16, maybe even top 8.

Speaking of the round of 32... I can't believe Lockjaw won't be in it. I don't think Hydra deserves it either, but I'm thinking they'll be granted the 32nd spot.


@Nick - DO IT! I'm still looking at the logistics, but I'm near certain I'll be coming to your day. My cousin (only 1 of 4) is getting married in Newport the day before. It's a late wedding (6:30pm), so we'll be spending the night. I'll have to shoot down Jersey the next day. It shouldn't be a problem though I'll have a bit more certainty in the coming weeks.

The Skorpios team posted this to their socials:

[Chino]

This is what my friends and I are playing for.

[jingle.boy]

Some good matches last night.  Love how bloodsport literally dissected Claw Viper.  That was a sweet toos that Madcatter delivered to Rampage.  Glitch looks legit.  Surprised they were only the 9th seed.  Huge got a little fortunate - looked like they lost drive in one wheel, but were lucky enough to be mobile just enough to dismantle Switchback.  Lucky with a nice victory.  I can't help but think Mammoth and Rusty are just column fodder.  I've rarely seen a solid victory from the former, and the latter is usually just trashed.

The tournament looks really good.  I'm most nervous for Ribbot.  I think Hydra got a bum deal this season - End Game to start, and I think Hydra had problems right from the opening bell.  Glitch had a couple of very fortunate bounces - both for themselves, and on the knockout blow to Hydra.  If Hydra returns to form, they could have a nice pathway to at least the round of 8.

No surprise that End Game is #1, but I was kinda surprised to see Hypershock as low as they are (13).  And I know that Sawblaze's loss was to EG, but it was still a loss - I don't think a 2-1 bot should be a top seed of a bracket.

I'm much more interested in *this* March Madness.

[Nick]

My two biggest surprises were Ribbot being as high as #2 while Glitch slipped as low as #9.

Glitch could easily get exposed at some point, especially if he gets flipped, but man, he has just come in and looked badass against good opponents.

And not that it's surprising at all, but End Game has to be the favorite again, really strong follow up to their championship season.

[jingle.boy]

And not that it's surprising at all, but End Game has to be the favorite again, really strong follow up to their championship season.

And all knockout victories over pretty impressive opponents too, in Hydra, Sawblaze and Witch Doctor.

[Chino]

Little late to the discussion about last week, but word in the combat robot combat communities is that a lot of the teams were pissed at this point in the competition. First off a lot of teams only got two fights instead the the four that the teams got last year. For one thing, this limits the amount of practice and gremlin finding time for those teams before the round of 32. The other issue is sponsorships. Teams already struggle to find sponsorships allegedly because of the red tape on Discovery's end. There's all kinds of additional crap the sponsors have to go through before Discovery will put their name on TV. Now I guess some sponsors are kind of peeved because the teams were told (who then told the sponsors) that they'd be getting four fights, meaning four tunnel walkouts with the sponsorships displayed. Well the sponsors are now only getting half of what they paid for.

I also take issue with some of the matches last week that I think makes the event less legitimate. Witch Doctor with their 1-1 record was fed Rusty of all bots. Short of them spontaneously bursting into flames, the probability of them losing that fight is near zero. That to me is nothing more than the producers fudging things to get who they want in the round of 32. It's not based on who earns their spot. Skorpios took and dished out almost nine minutes of amazing robot combat (costing them thousands of dollars), and they STILL need a fourth fight to get the 32nd seed. Witch Doctor with a 1-1 record gets to skate into the 24th seed with their second win being against Rusty? C'mon.

I don't think Hydra has any business being in the round of 32 this year, but the producers are giving them a chance by giving them Defender of all bots for their fight-in match. Hydra has been shown to be extremely fragile, and it gets into the round of 32 if it beats a bot that lacks a damaging weapon. Jake is a good villain for TV, and with Fusion not making it in to the bracket, Team Wyachi needs some kind of representation I guess. It's lame to me. 

[jingle.boy]

Well, I disagree a little with the points on Hydra, but you make fair points about WD and Scorpios.  But, on WD, there are a few other 'jobber' bots that are essentially guaranteed victories, so there are others in the top 30 also benefited from an 'easy' victory.

I'd assumed that everyone got an equal amount of fights (ie, 3), and they just weren't all aired.

[Chino]

Well, I disagree a little with the points on Hydra, but you make fair points about WD and Scorpios.  But, on WD, there are a few other 'jobber' bots that are essentially guaranteed victories, so there are others in the top 30 also benefited from an 'easy' victory.

I'd assumed that everyone got an equal amount of fights (ie, 3), and they just weren't all aired.

Negative. A bunch of teams only got two fights. Some were given the option to opt out because they were in the round of 32 regardless, and other teams were just told "you're only getting two".

There were a few threads on Reddit about it that I read through.
https://old.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/tagmjo/hypershock_confirming_they_did_not_receive_a_3rd/

[Nick]

I mean, you've got to weight "gremlin finding" with potentially watching your bot get torn to shreds, but it's lame that some teams were limited to less than three fights. Any that want three should be given it.

And I absolutely agree on the Witch Doctor fight, it would be one thing if that was lined up all along, but to give them Rusty at 1-1 is ultra lame.

[jingle.boy]

Some disappointments tonight - sucks they didn’t even air two of he fights. Glitch not getting in battle shape was a bummer - I was really liking that bot.  Saw blaze absolutely dissected Hijinx .... who I already thought wasn’t exactly a top 32 bot.